The invention relates to a covering for objects, in particular in public facilities and/or means of transportation, for preventing the transmission of infections, having a covering material, in particular with a virucidal and/or virostatic and/or bactericidal and/or bacteriostatic and/or fungicidal and/or fungistatic effect, the covering material being intended to be applied externally to surfaces of objects.
The transmission of diseases often takes place by infection in the public domain. Infections may occur as the result of contact with different persons. In the case of an infection, pathogens actively or passively enter the organism and often multiply there. The reaction of the organism that generally follows as a result may manifest itself as an infectious disease. The most common types of infection are viral or fungal infections and bacterial infections. Infections of the aforementioned kind may occur in particular in public facilities or means of transportation, since many people frequent these places.
To reduce the risk of contact infection, it is known from DE 103 05 142 A1 to provide surfaces that have a germicidal effect for the purpose of interrupting the transmission of infections, metals being used for killing the germs. In this case, a metal-doped, dimensionally stable plastic grip is proposed for a door handle and is pushed onto the door handle. Provided on the inside in the front region of the grip is a nipple, which in the pushed-on position engages in a hole drilled in the door handle. The interlocking connection is intended to prevent easy removal of the grip. If the grip is intended to be exchanged or taken off, this is performed by drilling out the nipple. For this purpose, a depression is provided on the outer side of the grip in the region of the nipple, in order to be able to put a drill in place.
The known metal-doped door grip has a tubular form and can be pushed onto correspondingly formed tubular door handles. It is disadvantageous that many door handles have a form that deviates from the form of a tube. Moreover, in the prior art, the door handle and the metal-doped grip represent a unit, since interlocking engagement of the door grip on the door handle is necessary. So far, use of the known door handle with a door grip has not been adopted in practice. The reason for this is likely to be, in particular, that it would be necessary to replace existing door handles, which usually have a form that deviates from the form of a tube and moreover do not have an engaging opening for the interlocking engagement of the door grip.
Also known from practice are fibrous and textile sheet-like materials that comprise ionic copper. These materials are used for example as an inner liner in handbags. The aforementioned fabrics are not suitable for use as a covering because they quickly become soiled, cannot be easily cleaned and, on account of their woven structure, offer the possibility of pathogens firmly attaching themselves there in such an amount that, even with a good virucidal or bactericidal effect, not all the pathogens can be deactivated or killed.